Porto, Portugal

ABOVE: The
Pensão
Residential Astória is on a steep street
leading toward the River Douro.

Hotels in Porto

In our opinion, location should be your #1 concern when selecting
a hotel in Porto. Many otherwise desirable hotels in Porto are located outside the historic center, in
residential or commercial areas that are best enjoyed by business travelers or
department-store shoppers. Still, if you're arriving by car, you may prefer
being out of the center just to avoid driving and parking on the narrow,
twisting, crowded downtown streets.

In
the city center, the Hotel Infante
Sagres is the only five-star hotel. Although it was built in the 1950s,
you'd never guess it from the public rooms, which are ornately decorated with
carved wood, marble, stained glass, Chinese porcelain, and other furnishings
that might be characterized as "Portuguese Victorian meets Art Deco." The
restaurant-breakfast room feels like a ballroom, and the 73 guestrooms are
comfortable with attractive bathrooms (but avoid the fifth-floor rooms if you
insist on reasonable water pressure).

The modern four-star
Hotel Dom Henrique has 112 rooms on 22 floors on the northern edge of
downtown. For more atmosphere in a scenic location, try the
Pestana Porto, which overlooks the riverfront.

In the three-star category, the
Grande Hotel de Paris
is convenient to the Praça da Liberdade and the
São Bento railway station. The
reasonably-priced hotel, which has its own garden, was built in 1888.